The presence of a quality and observant boxing official at the 2004 Athens Olympics resulted in a complete change in tactics deployed at subsequent internationals by Indian boxers in order to win medals; from the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in 2006 through to the Asian Games Guangzhou in 2010.
India's boxers were eliminated in the first round at Athens, a dismal performance that left Indian fans utterly disappointed.
But Brig. P.K Muralidharan Raja, who was a judge at Athens, did not lose time in identifying the reasons for the Indian boxers' first-round exit.
“I and the two Indian coaches, G.S. Sandhu and B.I. Fernandez, saw the scoring method and pattern in the subsequent round at Athens. Judges were willing to give points for straight punches, than for upper-cuts, jabs and hooks.
“We returned home, called all the coaches to Patiala and instructed them accordingly to concentrate on short, straight and solid punches and penalise boxers for attempting upper-cuts, jabs and hooks. This yielded results.
“We won one gold medal, two silver medals and two bronze medals at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. The focus on straight punches has been there for ten years, but India caught on with in only after the Athens Olympics.
“India has won medals at virtually all junior and international events, including nine at Guangzhou,” said Brig. Raja on the sidelines of the TransStadia India International Sports Summit here on Saturday.
After enjoying success since Athens, Indian boxers have been asked to adapt to a new scoring system that will covey the scores only at the end of the round. The new scoring system mainly lays emphasis on individual scores of those judges (three out of five) that are closest to each other.
“AIBA is keen to bring back the beauty of boxing. It was becoming monotonous. It's not the straight punches alone, the upper cuts, hooks and jabs will also count. We will see how it happens at the AIBA World boxing championships at Baku (Azerbaijan) from September 26,” said Brig. Raja.
Jay Kowli, India's referee-judge for the Baku meet said, “The validity of the direct blows / punches will count now.”
Touching upon the popularity of boxing and the World Series Boxing (WSB) Brig. Raja said, “The flow started when Dingko Singh won a gold medal at the 1998 Asian Games and people came to know of boxing after Vijender Singh's performances.
“India has seen a steady rise. It's never been a case of winning medals on a one-off basis. Boxing has been seen as a poor man's sports, but after WSB, boxing can be seen as a career sport.”
